B.C. premier wants tougher penalties for human-caused wildfires

B.C. premier Christy Clark is calling for tougher penalties on learning that the massive wildfire that destroyed at least 30 homes in the Okanagan may have been started by a carelessly discarded cigarette.

Along with more than 3,750 hectares of land, 30 homes were confirmed lost in the small community of Rock Creek and the Regional District of Kootenay Boundary reported 11 other structures also destroyed. The wildfire, which is said to have started near a highway junction on Thursday, killed livestock, forced the evacuation of hundreds of residents and shut down two highways.

The premier, speaking on Sunday at a community centre housing evacuees in nearby Midway, told those present that she would like to see harsher punishments for people who start forest fires.

“If you are found to have been throwing a cigarette butt out of your car, perhaps one of the penalties available should be that we should be able to take away the use of your car for a period of time,” she said.

Kevin Skrepnek, chief fire information officer at B.C. Wildfire Service told Yahoo Canada News that 1,120 or nearly 70 per cent of the 1,650 wildfires this season were caused by lightning.

“About 480 are currently suspected to be person-caused, and some we haven’t yet ascribed a cause,” he said. “Lightning has definitely been the big driver but with the Rock Creek fire, we’re operating under the assumption that it was human-caused given that we didn’t have any lightning in the area.”

“A thorough investigation is ongoing,” he added.

In 2014, 44.8 per cent of wildfires in B.C. were the result of human recklessness or arson.

Steve Thomson, the province’s Minister of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations, agrees that a change is needed. In early July his office published a newsletter outlining his plan to review regulations with an eye toward stiffer penalties.

“Earlier this month I asked parliamentary secretary, MLA Mike Morris, to take a look at the current structure of fines and penalties given to people who cause wildfires, and to come up with new ways to deter this type of behaviour,” he wrote in a newsletter. “Mike has agreed to look at the challenges of enforcing our current laws and raising public awareness. I look forward to hearing back from him in the fall.”

Morris wasn’t immediately available for comment but the former RCMP officer said in a news release, “We must send a clear message to those that carelessly start wildfires that their behaviour will not be tolerated.”

"Should we double the fine for failing to extinguish a campfire? Should we ban those who break campfire bans from using our provincial parks? Should we impound the vehicles of those who flick lit cigarette butts from their car windows? These are serious actions, but I think we need to at least consider them to send the message that enough is enough.”

In British Columbia, violators may face maximum fines of $115 for failing to report a fire and $173 for dropping, mishandling or failing to extinguish a burning substance.

Those who disregard open fire restrictions could face fines of up to $345.

However, if the infraction causes or contributes to a wildfire, those responsible may be ordered to pay all firefighting costs, according to the B.C. Wildfire Act.

In one well-known case, a B.C. man who started the 2003 McLure wildfire by failing to adequately butt out his cigarette was fined a mere $3,000. The McLure wildfire destroyed more than 70 homes, nine businesses and 26,420 hectares of land, causing millions in damage.

In an effort to tackle their human-caused bushfire problem, in 2010 the Australian Institute of Criminology released a bushfire arson prevention handbook. Created as a resource for fire, police and other organizations developing community-based arson prevention strategies, the handbook came out a little more than a year after the Black Saturday bushfires, a series of blazes that burned across the state of Victoria in February 2009, killing 173 people.